Civil War
by muchasfandomas
Summary: They were civil, at the very least. At this point, civil was all they could be.
1. Numbness

The numbness had somehow crept into her mouth. It started in her toes, ran through her legs, circled around her stomach and was now painfully close to taking care of all of her. She had only been driving for twenty minutes. She didn't think that'd be enough time for the numbness to kill her entirely.

She pulled up outside of the bank and ran in, barely noticing the movement of her feet. She waited in line to make her $350 withdrawal from her account. No, _their_ account. She silently wondered if he'd mind now that he had a right to.

She drove again, and slowly the numbness crept to the bridge of her nose. She ended up at the supermarket. Wait… did she even _need _to do that anymore?

But she did. She collected every item off of the shopping list he made the week before and waited in the checkout line. The cashier had giant hair and a big wad of gum in her mouth, but Sam barely noticed. She felt very close to dying.

"Mam? Mam? Mam, I asked you if you gots a key card!" the woman snapped, so Sam finally looked up. She still barely registered what she was doing. The numbness was quickly creeping into her brain.

"What?"

"A key card! Do you gots a key card?" the woman asked impatiently between gum chews. Sam handed her the card without further question. The woman looked her up and down.

"Got a bad day, miss? What, somebody in your family sick or somethin'?" Sam shook her head. "Got your license revoked? Got a ticket in the parking lot?"

"No." Sam responded, only faintly. The woman continued to run her items across the scanner. She looked at the key card before handing it back to Sam.

"Fredward Bensen. Dat your husband or somethin'?" Sam nodded.

"He's got somethin' wrong with him?" she shook her head. The woman rolled her eyes.

"Listen, miss, it sounds to me like you got nothing wrong wit cha but chu look like you got somethin' wrong wit cha! What's wrong wit cha, hmm?"

Sam finally glared at the woman with some intensity. The woman was taken aback.

"Mind your friggin business, skunkbag!" Sam snapped. The woman put her hands up in surrender.

"Woohee, just trying to help ya, miss!"

"Yeah, well I don't need any help! I'm fine!"

"All right, all right." Sam handed the woman her credit card and didn't even bother to pack her items into bags. She slammed can after can into the cart. She started to shed tears. She didn't feel so numb anymore.

The woman looked at her with sadness. Not pity, but genuine sadness. She touched Sam's hand, and Sam looked up.

"I'm Madge. I'm getting a demotion after today." Sam choked on tears that continued to splutter over.

"I'm Sam, and I'm getting a divorce."


	2. Failure

Madge had a coffee. Sam had a tea.

Sam wasn't one to befriend a stranger. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she did so. She wasn't even one to drink tea. But here she was, sitting across from a perfect stranger in a world-renowned coffee shop that she had previously refused to enter.

Madge took her coffee black. Sam added sugar to her tea. She knew she wouldn't be able to taste it anyway.

"I'm sorry you got fired from your job." Sam said, avoiding Madge's eyes and looking into her tea. "I didn't think the douche would take a coffee run that far."

Madge shrugged, brushing it off.

"Nah, I didn't like that place, anyway. Couldn't stand those peoples. And I really needed to get me some coffee." Madge drank up. Sam barely touched her tea.

Madge looked at Sam affectionately and placed a finger under her chin, making her look up.

"You seemz a little young to be married, don't cha?" Sam laughed and shrugged.

"I don't know. I mean, we did get married right when he finished college."

"How long youz been married?" Sam sighed, finally taking a swig of her tea. What she really needed was hard liquor.

"Five years." Madge's eyes widened.

"My gawd, in today's world, that's a milestone!" Sam choked on her tea and let out a snort. Wow, that was the first time she had laughed in… well… a long time…

"Yeah. For some reason, though, I'd thought we'd make a lot more." Madge frowned.

"Youz got any kids?" Sam gave a small smile. It was _almost_ a sad one. It was _definitely _ a wet one.

"No, thank God. We would've brought them into some mess." Madge returned the smile and rolled her eyes.

"Well, it's good that you don't got no kids with that _jerk_ husband!" Sam swallowed. Her throat was getting dry.

"He wasn't—he's not—a jerk husband. A jerk by himself? Maybe. No—scratch that—definitely! But… he's not a bad husband…" Madge didn't know what to take from that.

"So… did he cheat on you?" Sam shook her head.

"No."

"You cheat on him?"

"No, nothing like that." Madge sighed.

"Well, _geez_, whatteryou gettin' a divorce for?" Sam gulped, blinking back tears she didn't want to come.

"We failed."


	3. What Now?

"I'm home." She called. It was almost as if everything was normal. _Almost_.

He came out from the kitchen and nodded at her briefly.

"Hey." He didn't ask where she went. It was almost as if he didn't want to know. She seemed to trace his thoughts.

"I went grocery shopping. I got all the stuff we—put on the list." She was almost about to say _need_. Stuff _we need._ Did _they_ still need stuff?

His eyes widened, as if he just registered what she said. Or what she _meant_ to say. "Oh, oh, thank you! Is the stuff in the car? I'll go get it."

"Yeah, it's in the car. I'll come with you."

"Nah, nah. Stay here, I can take care of it all."

"You sure? I mean, it's no problem, I can…"

"No, Sam, I got it. I'll be right back, though, okay?"

"Um, yeah, okay." He went down the stairs and through the door. She heard it click behind him.

Did he just _thank_ her for groceries? That wasn't something they did! But then again, _they_ weren't _they_ anymore. Or at least… they weren't going to be. They were going to be Sam and Freddie, and they would go on to live their lives as such.

And the way that he assured her that he'd be back… as if he could just walk away... but then again, he could just _walk away_. So why didn't he?

When he returned up the stairs, Sam took some bags from him and set them on the kitchen counter. He started to stock the refrigerator, and she just stood there.

"So what did you do today?" Sam asked. This was small talk. She wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

"Um, not much. I just reprogrammed some software for work… and put some of my stuff in boxes…"

"Oh." Sam sighed. Was he really moving out _this_ quickly? Didn't they just decide to separate _yesterday_? Freddie looked up and saw her face. He couldn't possibly ignore the hurt in her eyes.

"Sam, I just figured I'd get started… I haven't even looked yet…"

"Okay."

"I just took some of my work stuff from the closet and…"

"I said _okay_!" She didn't mean to shriek it. That just kind of happened. Freddie swallowed and turned back to the fridge, continuing to place items into something that would soon no longer be his.

"Did you, uh, you didn't tell anybody yet, did you?" Freddie asked, daring to look briefly into her eyes again. She took a breath.

"No. Did you?"

"No." he held her stare.

"I met a woman." Sam said, and Freddie's eyes widened. He wasn't expecting _that_! What was he supposed to say to that?

"Um… _so soon_?" Sam rolled her eyes, and Freddie let out a small laugh. It almost sounded like a breath of relief.

"I didn't mean _that_. She's a cashier at the store…"

"Don't you always meet cashiers at stores?"

"Ugh. Yes, but I had coffee with her. Well, _she_ had coffee. I had tea."

Freddie blinked a few times. "Tea? You don't like tea."

"I don't, but I had it anyway." Freddie squinted at her, trying to find the bigger meaning behind all of this.

"_Why_?" Sam huffed.

"I don't know! I guess I just wanted something different, all right?" she snapped. He cringed, taking the implication of that statement all too seriously. She sighed.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Then what _did_ you mean, Sam? Why are you telling me all of this?" Sam sighed.

"I told her." Sam said. Freddie still said nothing. "I guess I just wanted to let you know that I told her…" Freddie nodded, giving Sam a light smile.

"Okay." He closed the fridge and stood up, hopping on the counter next to Sam. She looked at him, trying to check his expression.

"So that's okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Tell who you want." _Just as long as it's not Carly, or Gibby, or anyone else that we both mutually know_. She got the silent aftermath of that statement.

And so they were silent for the next couple of minutes, just standing in the kitchen together.

"_Sooooo_…" Sam finally said. Freddie turned his head in her direction.

"_Sooooo…_" he returned.

"What now?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know." And the silence returned to them again.

"Me, neither." She finally said, before walking out of the kitchen and out the door again.


End file.
